Welcome to South Austin Aikido

Last weekend Charles, Chad and I traveled to Boulder, Colorado for the annual Halloween Seminar with Saotome Sensei.  This year the seminar seemed less crowded than those I have experienced in the previous years.  This may simply be from training on a smaller mat space and then feeling less crowded on the larger mat in Boulder, as there were about 100 aikidoka present at this year’s seminar. 

Saotome Sensei worked on the important parts of establishing aiki from various attacks.  This happened primarily from entering mentally first, owning the space prior to uke getting there.  It was interesting to see how much this seminar paralleled what we had learned from George Ledyard Sensei just a few weeks earlier.  It was incredible practice to work on these essential elements with the many aikidoka at the Halloween seminar.  We also got to work on punching and kicking, which was exhilarating and a lot of fun.

With the larger space in Boulder, the training was fast and furious, leaving me pretty spanked at the end of each day.  Following training, I mostly wanted to sleep, probably from the elevation and lower oxygen levels.  Chad and Charles seemed to handle the altitude pretty well, so it may just be old age on my part.  In any case, it was a wonderful learning experience and a fun trip for us all.

It was good to see many of our friends in Boulder.  Ron Santichen was a most gracious host, making sure we did not go hungry while we were in Boulder and providing us a place to stay.  Thank you Ron!!  We hope to see you in Austin soon.